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It’s been really hard getting back into a good workflow since I arrived here in Sweden. I think part of it is my mind being occupied by my new job, the new environment and all the other changes that we are slowly getting used to. I also haven’t been able to organize my working environment very well and I’m the type of person who needs a well organized space to be creative.

On a positive note though I’m making some very slow progress on the next Cumulus album which will focus a lot on soundtracks to post-apocalyptic scenes and environments.

I got the chance to read through the latest version of the old swedish roleplaying game Mutant, which takes place in Scandinavia after some unknown apocalyptic event, and it’s been great fuel for the inspiration.

Finally, since Linn (my daughter) has started showing an interest in learning the piano we’ve added an electric 88key Yamaha piano to our home. I plan to use it for practice as well of course ;-).

Like this:

A while back my good friend Niklas from NOR and Norator visited me here in Stockholm for an epic synth weekend (featuring amongst others Kraftwerk and Cold Cave…) and helped me modify my Doepfer LC9 boxes from north american voltage (110v) to the swedish (230v).

Its a relatively simple modification if you’re handy with the soldering iron and know the basics of electrical engineering, but since I wouldn’t put either on my resume Nicklas volunteered to perform the procedure.

Below are some shots from the operation.

Start by loosening the screws in the back…

That hold the cover for the actual PSU (the one that say you will DIE if you tamper with it…)

Next break the two soldering bridges that north american units ship with, and create two new ones to match the spec of the european units…

And that’s it! My LC9 boxes are now fully compatible with the swedish electrical standard :). Many thanks to Niklas for taking the time!

Like this:

Now that I’ve gotten most of my gear in place I’ve slowly started to work on material for the next Cumulus compilation. The track below is a sketch, not yet complete but I thought I’d share the working versions along the way. Have a listen if your interested.

The track was made in one take entirely on my modular system. Live 9.1 was used as a recording device only.

I was based in Tokyo but relocated to San Francisco by my Japanese employer when I started this blog. San Francisco having such an incredibly creative atmosphere and an abundance of great music spots was a fantastic place to be for synth-head / electronic music producer. But in July 2013 my employer decided to transfer me back to Tokyo.

Tokyo is an awesome place, probably my favorite city on this planet, but for various personal reasons me and the family decided that the best thing for us to do next was probably to move to Stockholm and try our luck in my home country for a while.

I won’t go into the details, but the result is that we are moving to Sweden and will set up base in Stockholm. At the moment the rest of the family is still in Japan, waiting for visas and other technicalities, but I have gone ahead to try and set up a home and other preparations for us.

At the moment I’m living in a temporary, corporate housing solution, looking for an apartment in the Stockholm area (if you have any leads leave a comment!), while all the gear is somewhere on the Atlantic heading north (or west, or possibly east depending on how you look at it).

Therefor there won’t be that many updates for a while as I’m trying to acclimatize myself to this new environment and so forth.

In the meantime, here’s a shot of the portable studio set up in my temporary (very cold) apartment.

Looking forward to exploring the Scandinavian electronica scene, so if you have any tips or just want to hang out and talk synths and music let me know!